Recordings.

Kilgour's `First Steps' Stumbles

January 25, 1996|By Greg Kot.

David Kilgour

First Steps & False Alarms (Ajax) (star) (star) 1/2

As a founding member of the Clean, one of New Zealand's greatest postpunk outfits, David Kilgour probably has as much right as any indie-rocker to dump this collection of home demo tapes on the market, where they will no doubt be snapped up by a few thousand fanatics. Clean/Kilgour neophytes are advised to skip this collection and hunt down one of the defunct band's increasingly rare recordings, but cultists will crave at least some of these "First Steps." While the worst of it smacks of low-fi indulgence, Kilgour's knack for creating just the right atmosphere--rich with ambiguity or haunted melancholy--for his simple, unaffected melodies is very much in evidence on "Another Echo Downer" and "Pop Song," while the flow of alluring musical snippets that make up "Untitled" suggests that this guy throws away more good ideas in an afternoon of goofing with his guitar than most bands come up with in a career.